Primitive Archer
Main Discussion Area => Arrows => Topic started by: Mo_coon-catcher on February 26, 2017, 04:57:24 pm
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The cabin fever of being layed up started getting to me. So I had to do something productive. I got a half dozen bamboo garden stakes straightened out and ready to clean up. It took almost 2 hours, but what else do I have to do. I've got a pile of several dozen I need to straighten. And is a good low impact something I can do. I havnt made any bamboo arrows in a while. I'd forgot how long they take to straighten , but how easy they bend with heat. I'm not sure of there spine, but they feel like they'll shoot well in 40-60 pound bows with a little sorting.
Kyle
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looks like you have a very good start to some arrows
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I was needing some more arrows and I can't do much anyway for a couple weeks. I never seem to take the time to make arrows, but am constantly workjng in bows. So why not straighten a handful of shafts each day. I can still be Atleast a little productive. I want to get some more straight grained cherry. I made a handful of shafts with it last year and love it. But straight grain cherry boards are hard to come across. But bamboo is easy to get and its a good second to cherry for me.
Kyle
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good job. what do you use/what setting to straighten?
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I just hold a heat gun between my knees with te gun set on high. Then I rotate the shaft quickly and constantly moving so I reduce the chance of burning until I can't hold my hand on the hot spot I want to move. Then I use the heels of my hands to bend a little past straight and hold it for a few moments while blowing some heat off. I hit between the nodes on all of them first, the starting with the first I heated up I do the nodes. Then I'll keep rotating through the stack straightening and allowing to cool what is needed until I'm happy. When I hear the internodes I apply the heat up to an inch or lil less from the nodes. With the nodes I focus he heat the the thicker side of the node, otherwise I seem to over heat the thin side if I center the node over the heat gun.
Kyle
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Those look good, sir! Am surprised how quickly time goes by when working on arrows.
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I just hold a heat gun between my knees with te gun set on high. Then I rotate the shaft quickly and constantly moving so I reduce the chance of burning until I can't hold my hand on the hot spot I want to move. Then I use the heels of my hands to bend a little past straight and hold it for a few moments while blowing some heat off. I hit between the nodes on all of them first, the starting with the first I heated up I do the nodes. Then I'll keep rotating through the stack straightening and allowing to cool what is needed until I'm happy. When I hear the internodes I apply the heat up to an inch or lil less from the nodes. With the nodes I focus he heat the the thicker side of the node, otherwise I seem to over heat the thin side if I center the node over the heat gun.
Kyle
Thank you, I'll keep that in mind next time I'll straighten garden canes
Do want to see what arrows these'll turn into :P
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The spine may vary widely on those. I found that bamboo with the same 5/16" thickness can range in Spine from 40 to 120. However, they are nearly unbreakable.
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However, they are nearly unbreakable.
Many of mine are brittle, I guess from fungus damage or something, so I bend test them before working with them..
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I got another 5 sstraightened this morning. I broke one at a node I didn't notice I scorched. But 5 of 6 isn't bad for me. I expect there to be a pretty good spine range. But that's what sand paper is for. Most of these first 11 feel pretty similar and about right for my average bow. But like you said, I can feel a couple that are very heavy and not noticably larger. I've broken quite a few of these bamboo arrows. Usually from a glancing hit on a hard surface that puts a hard impact on a node. Though I havnt broke any from a direct impact. I'm gonna try to get a handful straightened each day until I have a good pile of straight shafts. Then I'll sand them down to a reasonably spine. I'll probably end up having everything ready except for cutting to length and the nocks for a little bit until I can start venturing outside comfortably.
Kyle
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Nice start - cabin fever can get you going on something. Good to hear you are somewhat functioning again!
Hawkdancer
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Careful holding the heat gun with your knees, you might burn something you don't want burned ;) ;) I usually have one or two break at a node even if I haven't overheated them.
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Here is a neat video of a Korean arrow maker using bamboo. He uses some interesting techniques.
https://youtu.be/VK5INvoNTdk
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Looks like you got a great plan Kyle. By the time you get them all finished hopefully you'll be able to start shooting them. Good way to keep your spirit up.
Bjrogg
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Here is a neat video of a Korean arrow maker using bamboo. He uses some interesting techniques.
https://youtu.be/VK5INvoNTdk
That guy needs a digital grain scale
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Here is a neat video of a Korean arrow maker using bamboo. He uses some interesting techniques.
https://youtu.be/VK5INvoNTdk
That guy needs a digital grain scale
And a chair ;D
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That coo coo clock went off a lot of times. Interesting video, they worried a lot about weight and matching nodes but no spine test.
Bjrogg
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Been shooting all my life and never heard of spine till internet forums. Makes me think it matters less than weight or practice shooting any old arrow. I have done the latter for years now and I have the ability to pick up an arrow, shoot it a few times and drive tacks with it. It's what my ancestors did and it's good enough for me.
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Here's a few I had made a while back that I never fully straightened and went a bt crooked on me. The thread holding the fletching and broke making the fletchings flop. So this morning I straightenes them and retired the fletchings. I just need to coat the thread to keep it from breaking: I isually use a few coats of clear nail polish. Very tough to abrasion but is easily cut and removed when needed. These shafts are from the same batch I've been woring on. The fm kahles arrows with the 160gr head is around 400gr. And shoot pretty decent from most 35-50 pound bows I've shot them from when they were still straight with tight fletchings. This is how I typically make my arrows. No creating, tied on two fletch of whatever length I feel at the time. Typically 3-4" if they are just going to have field points. Though I'm going to swap over to 4" 3 fletch for my broad head tipped arrows. 4" 2 fletch steers them fine if my release is good. Otherwise they wander a little before gaining control.
Kyle
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16 more shafts straightened out today. 5 more left to go. Then I'll start working on sanding, trimming, and cutting nocks.
Kyle
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Kyle,
Good work, I am trying to brainstorm a heat gun holder that will allow knees free control and two hands on the shaft😀😂. Didn't think of using the heat gun on the shafts, probably safer than the camp stove. Plan to make an antler shaft straightener to use on arrows and Atlantl darts, might ease the pressure on my hands.
Take care and get healed soon.
Hawkdancer
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My heat gun is a Wagner from Home Depot and has a flat back so it will stand with the nozzle pointing up. For the price of heat guns it may not be worth the time to build a jig.
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If I'm working outside I'll just clamp the handle of the heat gun in a bench vise. But for now the benefit of being young and flexible. Sometimes I st on the ground and use my feet o hold the handle, other times I use my knees. I've tried sitting this heat gun on its back, but the cord is o stiff that it keeps knocking it over when I get it where I want it.
I've been meaning to make one of those tools myself, but I've just never wanted to take the time to make one yet. It would probably take 15 minutes to make a useable tool. And an hour to make it pretty and functional. I'm thinking a walnut cut off with a little sapwood wth the heart, make it look like a capital F, with the tips slightly curved in toward each other and a reinforcing taper expanding out from the fingers. Maybe before the next batch of shady straightening.
Out of 30 shafts I had 2 split on me while drilling out the tips to take a dowel plug so I could cut a taper to accept glue on points. All this work on these arrows and I'm just going to give away over half of them to a couple of friends. Oh well, it's an excuse to make some more arrows. I really need to go walk the chariton River and see if I can find me a good patch of river cane and upgrade a bit from the garden stakes. They they are so cheap it's hard to pass them up. If they have a full bin of packages and you are picky on which ones you get, then most of the pack will make useable shafts. Every now and then the entire package is good. I pick through the 36" lengths, and they usually run about $2.50 per dozen stakes. So at this point I had bought 3 packs, so 36 stakes and ended up with 28 useable arrow shafts. So after tax, for less than $10 and a few hours of time, I ended up with 28 shafts. On average the tips are 5/16" diameter with the largest being just under 3/8" before sanding and the nock end run from 1/4"-5/16". I done have a spine tester, but most feel like they should shoot well from 40-55 pound bows. With this batch of shafts, I'm going to sand the nodes smooth and hit the main shafts with 220 grit to smooth then out a little. Since being garden stakes, cruet aren't the best quality bamboo. Oh, and I drill out the tips with a 5/32" bit and plug in 1" of 1/8" dowel with a little TB3 to lick it in. When pushing in the plug. Stop pushing as soon as any resistant if felt, if you push through, you will split the shaft. If it doesn't just slip in full depth.
After sanding the nodes, all I've got left is to cut the nocks. Easily doable with hand tools, but is SOOO much quicker with a band saw. Usually 3 bandsaw blad widths is perfect string fit. And they are ready for samding in about 2 seconds per shaft. Other wise, I drill an 1/8" hole 3/8" in from the end, hand saw a groove to the hole and widen the groove with a box knife. It works but is slow. I'mtrying to figure out a quicker method with hand tools. I'm thinking about trying a tile saw blade of several hacksaw blades glued together to be 1/8" wide.
Kyle
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How many TPI is your bandsaw blade? When I try to use my bandsaw (3TPI) no matter how slow I feed it, it tears a splinter on the back of the arrow. I use the little cut off wheels with my Dremel.
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I'm not really sure. It's my friends dads saw that he uses for cabinet work. But it rarely tears out anything. I wonder if the gap for the blade is a little too wide allowing a tearout since it's not being supported. I'll ask him to see how many tpi the blade is.
Kyle
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If you score around the cane with a sharp knife you can break cane shafts easily to the length you desire.
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I guess I wasn't clear. I was talking about cutting nocks with a bandsaw. Your idea might still work though, just score where the nock will be.
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I usually make 1 bandsaw cut in the end and open the slot to the size I want with a thin bladed knife and sand paper folded over and over and over until I get the throat opened where I want it to be. I like a loose nock but doing it this way you can make it as big or as tight as you want it.
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Doesn't your bandsaw tear out the back of the arrow? Not a big tear, just an unsightly splinter.
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I cut from one side then flip it and cut from the other side to clean up any splintering. After I'm done I relieve the sharp corners at the bottom of the throat with a small rat tail file. This eliminates and splinters and makes it easier on the string.
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How many TPI on your blade? The splinters that I get are about 3/4" long. Turning the shaft over just makes a splinter on both sides. I'm using garden stake bamboo.
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I use a bandsaw blade much like the technique described by Pat, and I still get tearout (not near 3/4"), when I'm using a 14 tpi blade
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I suspect it's my blade. I have a hacksaw blade for my bandsaw. I should try it. It's a pain in the fingertips to put the 3TPI back on though :D
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It's a 7 tpi blade. Sometimes I get little tear outs, but nothing major. I wonder if it could be the size of the opening around the blade. It could be a little wide, allowing for for unsupported material. You could even try pre wrapping the mock before cutting.
Kyle
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I'm not using a 3tpi blade but I am going pretty slow as I cut.
You can also use a ceramic hacksaw blade to cut nocks. It is a round blade with abrasive material added. You can get them from any hardware store for a few bucks. It will fit into a hacksaw frame.
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When my bandsaw kept splintering my nocks I started using my Dremel with a cutoff disc. I have to make a few cuts but it doesn't splinter and it gives me a couple of tries to get the nock in the middle of the shaft :-[ I'll probably stick with that as it's less trouble than changing blades on the bandsaw.